Tomorrow, Again, Tomorrow
by Kakasaku and Noodles
Summary: After the war, Sakura and Kakashi have to deal with the ramifications of losing their teammates and a mysterious jutsu from Obito that has had unexpected consequences.


A/N: I'm only caught up on the anime so I'm going to venture a guess that this is in at least some ways AU. I wrote much of this heavily sleep deprived on a long-haul flight so if something doesn't make sense, that's probably why. Inspired by a what-if from my lovely roommate.

Nine days after the Fourth Great Ninja War ended, Hatake Kakashi awoke in a Konoha hospital bed, possibly his least favorite place in the world. As he sat bolt upright, and the myriad of monitors attached to him started screeching, he was made suddenly aware of the pain in every bone of his body. Trying and failing to put the pieces together of what exactly had landed him in the hospital this time, Kakashi sank back into the pillows, grimacing with the movement. Alerted by the frantic monitors, a medic-nin bustled in, a bright smile on her face.

"Hatake-san! You're finally awake! How do you feel?"

He winced at her obviously put-upon cheeriness, squinted at her nametag, and croaked out a response, voice hoarse from days of disuse.

"Been worse, ah, Meiko – what happened?"

The medic's façade dropped and she gave a weary smile.

"We won, Hatake-san. The world's at peace."

Her eyes glazed over for a moment and her hands froze limply in the midst of reaching for the chart at the foot of the shinobi's bed. Kakashi interrupted her train of thought, asking in almost a whisper, "What did we win?"

Meiko's lips barely turned up at his question, her voice cracking almost imperceptibly as she responded.

"The fourth war, Hatake-san. You must be pretty shook up. Here, let me examine you."

The chart forgotten, the young medic pushed her chakra through the veteran shinobi's body, checking every organ and pathway carefully for damage.

"You were hit by some weird jutsu – that's all we know right now – and your chakra pathways aren't back to normal yet. Though…that could be the Sharingan, I'm not sure. I don't want to uncover it and examine it, I'd rather have someone more experienced with bloodline limits assess you. I'll see if I can find Shizune-san for you."

_Sharingan…_dimly, Kakashi thought that explained why one of his eyes was covered, but the powerful drugs Meiko was in the process of administering quickly ended all queries as to why, exactly, he was in possession of a foreign kekkei genkai. As he slipped back into sleep, Kakashi heard the medic reassure him with a quiet voice.

"Hatake-san, you're going to be just fine. I'm so sorry about your team."

Kakashi awoke again a few hours later, this time in significantly less pain. Assuming that he had been on the receiving end of a healing as he had slept, he sat up slowly, experimentally moving his limbs. He was pleased to note a lack of needles or tubes attached anywhere and decided that convalescence was accomplished at home as well as anywhere else. To that end, the Copy-nin opened the sole window in his room, jumped out, and made his way to the apartment he'd lived in since he became a genin.

When Kakashi opened the door to his apartment, something immediately felt off. The couch in his sitting room, though similar,, was different from the couch he swore he'd left when he went on this mission, his very first as a jounin. Venturing into his bedroom, he found his familiar threadbare shuriken-print quilt spread on his double bed, but instead of one picture at his bedside, there were two. He remembered the day the first was taken, on his first day as a genin, with Minato-sensei as proud as a father. Stricken, he recognized himself in the second picture, clearly much older than he thought he'd ever be, with three unfamiliar genin, one of whom resembled Minato-sensei quite strikingly. He distinctly remembered the medic at the hospital informing him that he'd been asleep for a matter of days, not years. As Kakashi held the strange portrait in his hands, he sat heavily on the bed and tried to remember the last mission he was assigned.

Haruno Sakura woke from her coma on the same sunny afternoon that her last surviving team member went home. Quickly realizing that Obito's dying act had landed her in the hospital, she let out a stream of curses and struggled to summon a slug. With much effort, a small blue-striped slug appeared and Sakura directed it to inform a medic she was awake. This done, she crossed her arms and lay back, beginning to feel the effects of her exertion.

Just as she began to drift off, a jumble of memories slammed into the medic-nin's consciousness. Flashes of the final battle against Obito and Madara raced through her mind, of Sasuke's long-awaited return to Team 7, of fighting at Kakashi's back against the monster inside his former teammate, of Naruto, Kurama, and Sasuke unleashing everything in their formidable arsenals at Obito, of Madara's great Susano'o, of the lack of regret on Obito's dying face as he eked out one final attempt at a Tsukuyomi, his inhuman power finally spent at last. Try as she might, Sakura had no recollection of how she had become so exhausted, with her Yin Seal almost completely depleted, and ended up in a coma. As she realized she could not remember what had become of her teammates, panic gripped her and she started to scream wildly, worry and anguish filling her heart and mind.

A young medic rushed into Sakura's room and blanched when she saw who was in the bed. Skidding to an ungainly stop, he bowed, stammering, as Sakura tried to catch her breath. Once she could talk with a semblance of calm, she looked at the terrified medic before her and a vague flutter of recognition passed her – ah. He had served under her in the war. That was enough of an explanation for Sakura, and she moved on to more pressing matters.

"Are they okay?" Desperation and as much hope as the consummate medic-nin could allow herself laced her question, loaded as it was. The younger medic turned an even ghostlier shade and timidly ventured, "Ah, who, Sakura-sensei?"

The kunoichi scowled impatiently and demanded, "Tsunade-shishou. Naruto. Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei. Are they alright?"

He winced at the names and sat down in the chair at her bedside.

"Sakura-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke didn't survive the battle with Obito and Madara. They saved us all."

An unholy sound wrenched itself from Sakura as she fell back in utter disbelief. The medic – Asahi, as her brain so helpfully supplied – awkwardly lay a hand on her shoulder that she angrily shrugged off. Fire flashed in Sakura's eyes and she spit, "Tsunade-shishou?"

Asahi shrank away, looking at the corner very intently as he mumbled,

"Haruno-san, she is still in a coma. No one is sure if she'll recover. The Creation Rebirth almost killed her."

Defeated, Sakura closed her eyes, barely whispering, "and Kakashi-sensei? Shizune?"

The younger medic looked profoundly relieved at being able to deliver somewhat good news.

"Both of them are well. Hatake-san woke up just a little while ago and Shizune-san has been overseeing the hospital."

Sakura exhaled deeply, gratitude writ large on her face.

"Thank you, Asahi. You can go now."

"One more thing, Sakura-sensei. Shizune-san has ordered that you stay until she could assess your condition herself."

Asahi turned and left, Sakura still reeling with the realization that Kakashi and Shizune were the closest thing to family she had left in the world. She lost track of time as grief overwhelmed her. It could have been hours or days before she noticed Shizune's quiet presence in the chair beside her.

Shizune gingerly took Sakura's hands in hers, absentmindedly massaging them gently. Both women understood the gravity of their situation and shared the same desperate hope that their shared teacher would be healed. Shizune broke the silence first, gently asking if Sakura had assessed herself yet. The younger woman shook her head affirmatively and the other medic visibly relaxed.

"We had no idea what happened to you when Obito attacked you and Kakashi. All I could find when I examined you was unusual chakra flow in your temporal cortex, which I suppose explains why you were in a coma. I'm so glad you're awake."

Shizune closed her eyes.

"I couldn't bear to lose you too."

Sakura smiled gently, the exhaustion that had seeped into her bones showing in her eyes.

"It's still not quite right but my body is still recovering. I'm sure I'll get back to normal with some serious rest."

Shizune embraced Sakura tightly, then stood up again, straightened her skirt, and sighed.

"I have to go check on other patients now. Since no one can find anything really wrong with you, you should go home and rest."

Sakura took her advice gratefully, walking home in a haze of grief and disbelief. Her feet moved on muscle memory, robotically depositing her at the front door of her apartment, the first she'd rented without a roommate since her promotion to chuunin. She stood frozen at the door, head spinning with her last memories of her teammates. Deliberately, she turned on her heel and began to walk towards the outskirts of town, where her last remaining teammate lived, still dazed with grief.


End file.
